What Does 2 Chronicles 32:31 Mean in the King James?
Howbeit in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to enquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
A public wonder can draw every eye, while the test reveals what no outward sign can show: the heart’s contents.
THE MEANING
God leaves you to the test, and the test brings what is in your heart into view. A wonder may draw attention from outside, yet the encounter exposes the inward contents beneath that attention.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A public wonder does not fully disclose the heart; the test reveals what the outward sign cannot.
THE ROOT
לְנַסּוֹתוֹ
lenassoto
GROWS FROM
נסה
To test or prove.
“try” in this verse is lenassoto. The root נסה names testing that brings something into view under pressure. Its appearance in the name Massah links this test to a relationship tested from both sides: here God tests a person; at Massah, the people test God.
ALSO GROWS
Massah: Testing; the place-name means “testing.”
מַסָּה
At Massah, the people test God (Exodus 17:7); here, God tests a person, and the same root frames both encounters.
nissah: He tested or proved.
נִסָּה
This verbal form uses the same root for a test that makes what is already present discernible.
לָדַעַת
ladaʿat
GROWS FROM
ידע
To know, recognize, or perceive.
“know” in this verse is ladaʿat. This root can describe knowing through encounter, not information alone. The verse joins testing to knowing what is in the heart: the test is where the inward contents become known.
ALSO GROWS
yadaʿ: To know or recognize.
יָדַע
The verse’s purpose clause uses this same root for knowing what is in the heart.
daʿat: Knowledge.
דַּעַת
This noun from the same root shows how knowing names the knowledge that the testing brings into view.
THE PATTERN
Testing brings what is hidden in the heart into view.
And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:THE THREAD
And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.Deuteronomy uses the same root for “prove” and the same sequence of testing, knowing, and the heart. That shared wording opens this verse further: the test brings the heart’s contents into view.
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